The Latinx Threat: They’re Here & Out To Get You!
Immigration has always been something understood in the United States. It’s been taught in school and the stereotypes surround us in everyday life. The United States reacted to the so called, “Latino Threat” by enhancing border enforcement. It is now known that this increase in border enforcement through manpower and funding did not complete it’s expected outcome of decreasing Mexican migrants from crossing over to the US. Massey, Durand, and Pren discuss how the United States plan for border enforcement came to be through moral panic and how the actual increase in border enforcement backfired in it’s intent to stop the influx of migrants into America. Goode and Ben-Yehuda looked at the different reasons for outbreaks of moral panics which include elite-engineered moral panics. These are moral panics that elites generate to the public through fear as a bigger issue than it actually is.
Why wouldn’t this foolproof plan of immigration control completely work in stopping the Latino Threat? Unfortunately, it failed but not because of lack of trying, but of lack of understanding. The Latino Threat narrative that was believed by so many was none other than a moral panic started by politicians. Goode et al. argue that, “a small and powerful group deliberately and consciously undertakes a campaign to generate and sustain fear, concern, and panic on the part of the public over an issue they recognize not to be terribly harmful to the society as a whole” (p. 164). Politicians, bureaucrats, and pundits were able to hop onto the Latino threat narrative in order to invoke a sense of fear in society that these people were “taking away jobs from legal residents and illegally acquiring welfare benefits and public services” (Chapman in Massey et al. p. 1561). This so called “silent invasion” was the perfect opportunity for politicians to invoke a moral panic and get society believing in these false accusations.
The border enforcement was the solution to the problem but it did not stop migration into the United States. It just made it harder for Latinxs to cross but this caused them to get crossing guides that were more expensive because they now had to help them cross near areas that were unsafe. Massey et al. says that “it will simply induce them to adjust their border-crossing strategies while continuing to migrate to readily available jobs in the United States” (p.1564). Once the migrants have made their way into the U.S. the border enforcement does not allow them return back to their country as easily so most stay and maintain a permanent residence in the United States. The plan to stop the migration of Latinxs backfired because the “risks associated with the new crossing strategies will create disincentive for return migration” (p. 1565). The threat was over exaggerated and the solution did not stop what was already happening , it just stopped the undocumented from returning home.
Moral panics have been a part of society for a long time and this is another example of when a moral panic sets in, people don’t think rationally. The government and society believed in this moral panic which caused them to devise a plan that backfired. These moral panics aren’t rationally researched to understand what is really happening and how to reform or adjust the problem. Moral panics cause fear and reactions to fear are not always the most rational as seen by the failure of border enforcement to stop migrants from coming into the United States.
